Shek Daniel T L, Leung Kim H, Dou Diya, Zhu Xiaoqin
Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Front Psychiatry. 2022 Apr 28;13:883439. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.883439. eCollection 2022.
According to the positive youth development (PYD) approach, PYD attributes such as psychosocial competencies are developmental assets which can promote the holistic development of adolescents, such as increase in thriving and decrease in risk behavior. Although there are research findings supporting this theoretical proposition, there are several weaknesses in this literature. These include a lack of studies examining family antecedents of PYD attributes and the mediating role of PYD attributes in the relationship between family functioning and adolescent delinquency. There are also few longitudinal studies utilizing large samples and validated measures of family functioning and PYD attributes in the scientific literature. In this study, we examined the predictive effect of family functioning on adolescent delinquency and the mediating role of PYD attributes. Using a short-term longitudinal study in Sichuan, China, we collected two waves of data from 4,981 adolescents aged 11 and above, with 6 months between the two waves. Analyses using structural equation modeling showed that family functioning at Wave 1 negatively predicted the level of and change in delinquent behavior at Wave 2, with PYD attributes at Wave 2 as a mediating factor. The present study enriches the conceptual framework on the role of family functioning and PYD attributes in adolescent delinquent behavior. The findings also suggest that strengthening family functioning and PYD attributes would protect adolescents from engaging in delinquent acts.
根据积极青少年发展（PYD）方法，心理社会能力等PYD属性是发展资产，可促进青少年的全面发展，如增强茁壮成长感和减少危险行为。尽管有研究结果支持这一理论命题，但该文献存在若干缺陷。这些缺陷包括缺乏对PYD属性的家庭 antecedents 的研究，以及PYD属性在家庭功能与青少年犯罪关系中的中介作用的研究。科学文献中也很少有利用大样本以及对家庭功能和PYD属性进行验证测量的纵向研究。在本研究中，我们考察了家庭功能对青少年犯罪的预测作用以及PYD属性的中介作用。在中国四川进行了一项短期纵向研究，我们从4981名11岁及以上的青少年中收集了两波数据，两波数据采集间隔为6个月。使用结构方程模型进行分析表明，第一波时的家庭功能对第二波时的犯罪行为水平和变化有负向预测作用，第二波时的PYD属性作为中介因素。本研究丰富了关于家庭功能和PYD属性在青少年犯罪行为中作用的概念框架。研究结果还表明，加强家庭功能和PYD属性将保护青少年不参与犯罪行为。
